Thursday, August 18, 2016

WooHoo!!! We're No. 1!

Yey! Cato Institute just published a study "that ranks the American states according to how their public policies affect individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres" aptly named Freedom In The 50 States. Guess where the State of New York came out on the list. Betcha' can't get it right. {{{{Drumroll, please}}}... Yeah, we came in #1 in least free state in the union.

Okay, well, if you are going to get all "truthy" and spin it in "the worst case scenario", I guess you could say that the State of New York actually came in last at #50. Okay, yeah, it has been the same since 2000. Stop being so negative, ya'll! [That should be "youse guys" actually]

Anyway, I took a quick look a the analysis and the first paragraph made me do a "Home Alone" kind of facial gesture.

New York is again the least free state in the country. Its huge, glaring weakness is fiscal policy. If New York were to adopt a fiscal regime closer to that of California, New Jersey, or Connecticut, its overall economic freedom score would be close to theirs. As it is, New York looks set to remain the least free state for many years to come.

Well, my opinion is that California (#46), New Jersey (#40), and Connecticut (#44) are not the prime example of "fiscal" freedom that New York should emulate. But I guess you can't jump to mid-lowests without first climbing over the other lowests first. And hey, NY is first in "Same-Sex Marriage" freedom and....there is nothing else actually. As a side note: NJ's fiscal responsibilty rating has gone up since Gov. Christie took over in 2010. In 10 years (2000-2010), it went from #15 to #43. So give Gov. Christie credit for moving the state up a few notches to #40.

‎”New York is the progressive capital of the world and, despite what any right wing think tank says,” Azzopardi said.

“Any objective review of the facts would have also found this administration’s reforms led to the lowest middle class tax rates in 70 years, the lowest manufacturing tax rate since 1917, the lowest corporate tax rate since 1968, a property tax cap, six budgets in a row with spending capped to 2 percent and the lowest debt to personal income ratio since the 1960s.”

None of this is true in any practical way. Oh, yeah, the taxes may have gone down from extraordinarily high to just extremely high. After all NY leads the way with the highest taxes in the country. In that we can clearly claim that #1 spot! And all of the progessive job creation schemes Cuomo has instituted have amounted to about less than 1200 jobs. At last count, the Governor's office has spent about $2billion+ on these schemes, but most of that has been spent in advertising by the Governor's office.

And I nearly fell out of my chair when I read Cato's "Policy Recommendation". These "recommendations" are sadly laughable mainly because none of these cuts will ever happen.

Policy Recommendations

Fiscal: Cut spending on hospitals, housing, libraries, public welfare, sanitation and sewerage, public transit, employee retirement, and “miscellaneous”; cut all taxes, and pay down debt.

Regulatory: Abolish rent control. This move could have raised New York to 47th, just behind Connecticut, on regulatory policy.

Personal: Slash tobacco taxes, which are so high as to be almost tantamount to prohibition.

In all fairness to the last one, the whole point of the high tobacco taxes was specifically designed to eventually prohibit smoking. It is worse (or better) in NYC with smoking bans in buildings, restaurants, bars, parks, beaches, and some residential dwellings, it is almost complete. Hey, it could have been 16oz sodas, so I guess we're luckier than most.

Anyway, for more details on where your state stands on the Freedom scale, click on your state to get the ranking; click on "How It's Calculated" to find out the details used to rank and if you want a free .pdf copy of the 266 page report click on "Print Edition" and download. If you are from the "Live Free Or Die" state of New Hampshire, you are the lucky ones. But, hopefully you are more free than we are in New York. Good Luck!

20 comments:

Congrats Bev! It's always good to be the best at something... I guess.

So you feel better, Colorado will get a chance to shoot itself in the head with a single payer initiative this election cycle. You might as well burn the state to the ground if that passes. I may do some looting if it passes. :)

The CATO map is like a guide for where not to raise a family. The higher the ranking, the worse the state. It's like CATO ranked the states higher by how crappy and backwards, or just empty, they are. You'd have to be retarded to get anything else out of this.

Mixed news for my home state. Nebraska has fallen from top-10 to dead average since 2000. However, in reading the synopsis, this has more to do with positive moves made by other states than negative moves made by itself. I do note that Jersey is right about sparsely populated states taking a hit just for that. CATO, like most east coast based organizations, doesnt understand how little rat matters. Midwesterners think far less of traveling 100 miles than their coastal counterparts. Jurisdictional choice shouldn't be a measure of freedom unless a way to adjust for the population's elective mobility is factored in.

Hey, Jersey, define "how crappy and backwards they are". I live in the greater NYC metropolitan area and people are free to pee/poop in the street and shoot up in any park they choose now! thanks, Cuomo/DiBlasio! That's the most "crappy and backward" thing I can think of. Now if you are talking about Florida, I might have to agree, but then it's filled with mostly transplants from the greater NYC metropolitan area, so they just took their crappy and backward selves down there to escape the high local/state income taxes. I am most certain that the people living in the top 10 states know much more about basic sanitation and how to use the toilet than the bottom dweller.

Tryanmax - I get the population difference should be factored in. But the fact that I can less than 300 steps to the corner to get milk/vegs/snacks etc. 24/7 and get back between commercials is a definite A-plus-plus in freedoms!

Oh, btw, I actually agree with sunsetting the rent control laws. Since the leases can be transferred to next of kin in perpetuity, it has caused the other rents to explode to compensate landlords. Many of these are 3-5 bedroom apartments with inheritable rents at $300-500. Even rent stabilized rents cause a problem. In my building the rents vary from $450 to $3,000 for the same size apartments.

Bev, I agree the convenience is a great freedom, but the CATO report is talking about something completely different. They're talking about choice of local government, and they rate it low because they figure Nebraska has only 0.50 effective competing jurisdictions per 100 square miles. I think that's a ridiculous metric for a number of reasons, but mainly because it automatically penalizes states with large area and low population. What is a state like that supposed to do about it? Divide their cities into more, smaller cities? If the next town over seems like a better place to live, people will move to it, even if that town is 101 miles away.

Tryanmax - It's because these leases were signed in '60's when that was "reasonable" and, because of our laws, the leases can be passed on to "next of kin". That includes any relative (3rd cousin once removed) who has lived in the apt with the leaseholder for the preceding 2 years before the leaseholder's death. Imagine how that works out in reality. Lots of elderly being preyed on by their sketchily related relations. Or by landlords who want them out.

The Brazilians have arrested two American swimmers because Ryan Lochte apparently got into a fight and when the police asked what happened, he falsely reported that he had been robbed at gunpoint.

They cancelled the swimmers' passports, took them into custody and they are now facing prison.

WTF?!

This is a warning kind of crime, not a prison kind of crime. There are women who make false rape charges, gays/blacks who create fake hate crimes attacks, etc. and none of those people get punished in the least. Sometimes, people go to jail because of these false charges.

Doesn't it seem wildly disproportionate to turn this into an international manhunt? It's obvious to me Brazil is trying to scapegoat their failures on these two swimmers.

I almost feel like we should invade Brazil to "free the hostages" just to make this whole thing completely ridiculous.

Also, I do not understand why living in the wide open spaces is somehow less free than living in the densely populated urban areas? It is really to each his own. Honestly, I get nervous when I am too far away from other people. Even though I hate crowds, it's nice to have someone within screaming distance to ignore you while your being stabbed to death.

Hey wait-just-a-gosh-darn-NY-minute, Critch! LOL! What does that mean? First of all "southerners" talk funny. And anyway, my take on why I am here is to "bear witness" to the craziness in every aspect of humanity (or lack therein) in one place. It's so convenient that way. ;-)

Interesting stuff. I'll need to study it a bit more this weekend but I'm not surprised that Georgia placed about the middle. On the whole our government isn't horrible but it does have a tendency to do dumb things. I do agree that the municipality rating doesn't make sense either. It was a little disappointing to see Texas rate lower than Georgia, but my other big move options, Arizona and Florida, rank higher.

Oh, and speaking of states I blame you for this, Andrew... The first time I processed an online order from West Virginia my first thought was "If it's even half the pisshole Andrew says it is then the payment probably won't go through." Sure enough, two of the three WV orders I processed didn't go through! No orders from Devil's Asshole, though!